the lights we keep on through the night
by DoceoPercepto
Summary: [AUish, takes place during the Greater Hater, Dominator is a telepath] Wander goes to greet the new enemy soon-to-be-friend of the galaxy, but she isn't what he was expecting.
1. Chapter 1

The ship is alive.

And now, that's a weird thought, that's a real weird thought, and Wander wasn't so sure why exactly it came to him.

But maybe 'cause the creepy crawlies skittering like tiny little spider legs up and down his spine. Maybe the pulsing heat, or the low humming vibrating beneath his feet or the pumping of lava through the walls. _Thumm-thum thumm-thum_ deep, muffled, and the slick rushing splashing of molten lava.

Wander hugs the basket close to his chest – this is okay, this is creepy – this is okay, really.

 _Something is watching him._

He doesn't know how he knows that, either. There's nothing here _to_ watch him, at least nothin' he's seen yet, and the hallways are empty and wide and yawning, nothing here, nothing but him.

Something's definitely watching him.

"Hello?" Oh, his voice cracked there, "Hello? Heellooo? Anybody home?"

If someone was out watching him, wouldn't they wanna respond? Were they shy? He wanted them to be shy, wanted them to be nervous but good-hearted, and just the sort of material to be a friend.

He didn't want to think other options.

He chuckles; well, it isn't the kindest reception, but Syl and he could get any ol' villain to warm their heart! Although - Wasn't Sylvia right behind him? She'd followed him right up the drill -

Wander turns and he looks, but Sylvia's not there. In fact, the entire hallway isn't there. It's a wall.

Wander jumps, presses his hand to it, but it's exactly what it looks like – firm, but soft, _warm_ , unnaturally warm, and he swears he can feel something _beating_ there.

"Helloo?" he calls out again, and it's not nervous, he doesn't sound nervous, nothin' is weird here, he just – he needs to greet their new neighbor, wouldn't it be great? A new neighbor just like Hater, maybe, and that would really be nice – how can he escape?

Not that he wants to. Just. If he needed to. What with the hallway bein' closed off all the sudden and all –

Wander pounds a hand against it, but it's immoveable.

"Aaaalll right!" He chirps, turning on his heel. "That's a-okay, we're just goin' t'keep right along and find our new friend and they'll let me right off when I need to go, no problem!"

Sure is scary Sylvia isn't there though. It had been a long time since he last traveled alone and –

Well, that's okay. The new friend will help him out.

"I've got a fruit basket!" Wander sings, holding the basket above his head and walking in the only direction he can go now.

"Oooh, what's in it?" A voice says behind him, and it's all sly, conniving, and it's – she's – she's a _girl_. Wander spins around, heart pounding because golly she sure had appeared fast - and she's already plucked an apple from the basket. She's _tall_. Very tall, and huge horns arc up on either side of her head.

"Hiya there!" Wander squeaks. "Wh-where'd you come from?"

"Where'd you come from?" she inspects the apple.

"Well, right –" he points to the wall, only to realize just how silly that is, and she chuckles.

"Wow, so you can walk through walls? Amazing. I'm _so_ impressed." She bites once, and half the apple is gone. Wander didn't even catch her _chewing_ , but maybe he just missed it?

And the next feeling is a strange one, a squick-y feeling like wet worms burrowing up in his brain matter – Wander presses a hand to his skull – maybe he ate something funky?

"So your name is Wander," she hums thoughtfully, and he has a delusion that its tone matches the ship's.

"That's my name!" he chuckles. Where is the escape? "So you're the new enemy on the block! Well, like I always say, an enemy is just-"

She interrupts, "Or… Tumbleweed. Sketchbook? … _Sunflower_?" She barks out a laugh, and it's hoarse and sadistic, beat into shape by countless years of cruelty. "Did you really go by that name? For _two hundred and sixteen years_ , even!"

Wander hugs the basket to his chest and takes a step back. "H-how'd y'know that?"

"I'm Lord Dominator," she smiles at him like he's a snack for her to devour, "And I thought my name was a joke – I mean, it's just for fun, right? It's hilarious! Getting everyone to fear a name like that! But _you_ , oh man. _You're_ adorable."

Wander gets the sense this isn't a good thing. "H-how'd y'know all that about me?" Some things he doesn't want people to know. Some things he doesn't even want to remember, himself.

"Ohhh, so even someone like you has fun secrets!" She grins, nice and wide and predatory. "I _love_ secrets. Go on, tell me what you're hiding."

Wander steadies himself. Focus on the important thing. He finds it in him to grin back, with none of the menace she's got, and all of the good intentions he can muster. "Well, hi Lord Dominator! That sure sounds like a good friend of mine's name – he's Lord Hater, and he's a big tough meanie on the outside, but he's got the softest heart you'll ever find."

"Ugh, that's not _secrets_. Come on, what's that nice deep dark secret you were alluding to?"

"I-I didn't say nothin' about a secret-"

"You did in your head," she says, and Wander thinks he's beginning to understand, but he continues on, hoping he's wrong,

"It doesn't seem like you're too used to havin' friends, but you gotta get to know someone, and they gotta feel nice and ready, before they share any secrets!" Wander doesn't like the way she looks at him. "But if you wanna, I'm sure you and I could b-"

"Really," she says, without an ounce of emotion. Something wrenches too hard in his skull, and all his guttyworks twist up in fear, because he can _feel_ her in his head, and – oh grop. He's met people with that power, but not like this - Wander stumbles over himself to back away.

"O-oh," he says, like there's nothing at all wrong with her rifling through his head, turning every private page like an engaging book. "That's a pretty neat power you've got," he tries desperately to push her _out_ but it feels like a butterfly's wings fluttering against a slowly closing fist. Hoarsely, he adds, "I-it's real nice meetin' ya, but maybe you can get outta my head and we can jus' talk things out?"

"You figured it out fast," she says ponderously, her persimmon eyes now drifting away from him, turning laxly towards the ceiling - it occurs to Wander this is because she's seeing _reading_ information that his face isn't relaying, and it's chilling how she doesn't care, she isn't feeling one ounce of guilt or regret. "Most people take longer to realize it's me. Smart."

"Stop-" It's starting to hurt, it's starting to hurt real bad, she's prying at things he doesn't want revealed, not even Sylvia knows, he doesn't –

She breaks in like a knife through tissue paper. That's that. His lungs flutter too fast, in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out trapped in his ribs. It feels like a molten rod has been jammed into his skull, frying every neuron, melting tissue. She extracts every bit of information she wants, and her languid smile only grows.

"Awww, that's so precious! _The helper seeks to help others because he knows what it is to be helpless._ Hah, duuuuuumb! And you haven't even told your little Zbornak friend! Ohh man, that's great."

Wander's curled around the fruit basket like clinging to it will spare his life, like somehow it can take back what she had just learned. He really wants to stop shaking but nothing in his body is cooperating anymore.

"Well, I'm not a monster," Dominator drawls. "I won't tell your pet horse. I'll keep your secret between us, like a good _friend_."

He tries to speak but fails.

She makes a gentle crooning noise. "Aww, is that too much for your little mind? Gosh, I'm just so sorry… I don't know my own strength, blah blah, you know, that jazz."

The pressure in his skull lightens fraction by fraction, and Wander thinks she has needle point precision, that she knows exactly what she can do and every tiny grain of power she extends is horrifyingly deliberate.

Tears are streaming down his face, but he didn't know when he had started crying or why. He meets her eyes, "th-thank you… for not tellin,' I mean. I-I don't wanna worry Syl any about it."

"Oh, I understand." She kneels, and they're eye-to-eye, and her eyes are so _empty_ , devoid of any compassion. "I like you, Wander." That is distinctly a bad thing, of that he wishes he wasn't certain. "That's the name you prefer now, isn't it?"

He nods, but isn't sure why she asks when she clearly knows the answer.

"I like you, so I think I'd like to play with you more." Not good, very not good, but there's nowhere to run – "Oh, don't worry," she chuckles. "Not right now. No, I'm going to let you go right now. I'll show you back to your Zbornak, and you two will leave my ship."

He nods frantically because if he isn't safe here, Sylvia definitely isn't, and he wants to go, _now_.

"Glad to see you're not as stupid as most people," she purrs. "Oh, and… let's keep our meeting a secret. A fair trade for the secret I'm keeping for you, right?"

He whimpers, but this is answer enough for her – when she draws away, the wall behind her is gone, and there's Sylvia, beloved Syl, she's at the end of the hall and looking for him, calling his name, and he could faint in relief.

He moves to say goodbye, but Dominator is gone.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:I didn't mean to continue this. I really didn't. And then I wrote another chapter, told myself off sternly, and now here we are. I suspect I will write other chapters, so for now I'm setting the story as incomplete, but I don't intend on making anything long out of this.

* * *

The second time he meets Dominator, it's an accident. He's heard rumors of her, sure; nowadays, it's hard not to. Planet after planet crumbles beneath her, like a line of dominoes steadily, surely, falling one by one.

She's good at what she does.

Sylvia's confused that Wander doesn't want to befriend her, but her confusion is never great enough to ask: she's worried asking will incite a change of heart. She wants to keep him away from Dominator, and that's how it stays, for months.

That's how it stays, until they're on the Trrzep planet; Sylvia's hitched to a wagon full of apples and griping,

"Flarpin' farmer, and her sick horse, flab drassit, I'm not a horse…"

while Wander is perched on top of the apples, a-strummin' his banjo. "Ohhhh, up with the sun and out on the road, horizon t'horizon an' planet t'planet, we're gonna bring the help they need! Deedadeedadee da-dee a r'ree dadeedadee, deliverin' ol' farmer May's apples to the market, we're gonna-"

Something brushes his thoughts, a sense of curiosity, then surprise. His fingers fumble on the chords; a dissonant _twang_ wrecks the song.

 _If it isn't the little Wanderer!_ His fur stands on end.

"Not the best song ending you've ever done," Sylvia commented.

Dominator's close, but it's impossible to tell where. Wander gets the impression she knows exactly where he is.

 _Unfair, isn't it?_

"Yo, Wander, you're not falling asleep back there, are you?"

 _I was just going to destroy this little planet, but now that you're here, let's have a little fun._

"Wander?"

 _You have two hours. Go._

Huge red numbers are emblazoned into his skull: 2:00:00 and the seconds begin whizzing down:

1:59:59

1:59:58

1:59:57

1:59:56

Wander launches out of the cart and his words spill incoherently, "oh-my-flarp-we-needtagetthemouttrightnow Syvlia, ahh!"

"Whoa, whoa buddy, take a moment to breath, what are you saying?"

"DOMINATOR'S GONNA DESTROY THIS PLANET WE GOTTA GET EVERYONE OFF RIGHT NOW!"

"What? Wander, how can you know that-"

"RIGHT NOW!" and he's off, near-hyperventilation. The first native resident he comes across halfway down the path, but Wander screams incoherently at him, and the poor man gathers his traveling pack and tries to flee.

Wander grabs him and tries again, "DOMINATOR! GOING TO – DESTROY- YOUR PLANET – RUN!"

"I'm sorry," Sylvia's finally caught up, free of the cart, and she tries to drag Wander back, throwing apologetic looks at the man, "my friend is um – he's had a little too much sugar, and –"

"Sylvia, you GOTTA believe me!" he screeches.

1:57:29 says the clock.

Sylvia looks doubtful, but takes the moment to ask, "Why do you think she's going to go after _this_ planet?" The poor traveler begins to sidle away.

Wander keens. "I CAN'T TELL YOU!"

Sylvia looks at him strange and sideways, like she knows more than he's let on – but he sure hopes not because he thinks Dominator is making a game out of this, and that if Sylvia learns about her powers, Dominator's going to kill her.

But whatever Sylvia gleans from him, it helps. She smiles. "All right, buddy. Let's save some people."

And they try. They really do try. Few people believe them, most don't, and people in both groups end up in ships in space, or in orbble bubbles. But it's hard forcing an entire planet's worth of people to evacuate. Sylvia takes to pretending they got definite intel that Dominator was on her way, but even then people are reluctant to part from their homes or believe two traveling vagabonds.

 _Tick tock_ Dominator says cheerfully, and the clock says 1:32:01. They stop asking people, and start force evacuating – Wander apologizes vehemently to every sad soul they grab.

By 00:14:52 they've got about eight hundred people off the ground. But there's about three billion on the planet, and Wander's ripping out his fur as they run between villages.

"Gogogogo fasterfasterfaster-"

Sylvia grits her teeth and pours on the speed; Wander yells into the transmitter he got from the hat– if it can save even just one more person…

 _Your Zbornak can run fast._

They clear another village, and rush to the next.

 _Ohhh, but just not fast enough, is she?_

Sweat crawls beneath Wander's fur. If anybody dies….

The nose of Dominator's ship begins to peek over the planet's horizon.

 _Ooo, it looks intimidating from your perspective! I like that. Everyone looks like ants from here. Squish._

Residents are screaming left and right now; many flee to ships, others Wander guides onto Sylvia's back. Several have followed Wander's example and set to evacuating their neighbors.

 _Can I confess something awful to you?_

The shadow of her ship bathes the land.

 _One of my favorite things to do is get in the head of someone – anyone, really – and really_ feel _what they feel when I destroy their planet. Kill all their family and friends. And then, kill them. I stay in their head, right up to the last moment._

Nononononono -

 _What an experience_ , her rapturous joy floods his mind. It's dizzying to feel both savage joy and overpowering terror.

00:03:13

00:03:12

00:03:11

00:03:10

00:03:09

Wander is nearly leaping out of his skin, shoving bottles of orbble juice into the hands of screaming families.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" he cries to the sky.

 _This is what I do._ She's laughing. _Might as well ask why you play your banjo, or help people._

"STOP STOP GIVE ME MORE TIME YOU DON'T WANNA DO THIS!"

She makes a soft, amused noise, and opens up her emotions, just a tad more – she definitely wants to destroy the planet. She wants to very, very much.

00:00:59

He's pulling bottles of orbble juice out of his hat and chucking them left and right. In the background, Sylvia is instructing those that don't know how to use it. Large bubbles are appearing all over the surface of the planet, and drifting up, until the atmosphere is more bubble than air. They flow up and away, like a river composed entirely of large, shimmering bubbles.

By now, dozens are flocking around Wander, hands outstretched, and the screaming and begging is wrenchingly awful.

00:00:19

 _I'm so happy I ran across you_. _This makes it so much more entertaining._

He slaps orbble juice in so many hands that he doesn't have time to look at the faces. His heart is beating nearly out of his chest.

00:00:17

"HOW MANY PEOPLE LEFT?" Wander screeches.

Dominator pauses, and a stark thought bursts in – _she doesn't know_. A sour, displeased feeling resonates through the mental connection: Wander wasn't supposed to learn that.

 _Fine, I don't know. But there's enough of you little rats still running around that their lives will you keep up at night._

00:00:09

00:00:00

"N-NO, Y'SKIPPED!"

 _Gonna cry about it?_

The drill shoots out from the hovering ship, and cracks open the planet like a walnut. Violent earthquakes wrack through its crust, and the ground bucks and rears. People are thrown this way and that, and Wander too is tossed to the dirt. He leaps up again, clinging frantically to his hat, and pulls more bottles of orbble from it.

The nearest person reaches for it, a cry at their lips – but with a horrid, screeching groan, the earth ruptures. They fly in separate directions, and Wander hits the ground hard.

A hand grabs him, "Wander, we need to leave!"

"JUST A FEW MORE!" he's near hysterics, limbs flailing, but the whirring of the drill is nearly deafening

"We're going, NOW."

Sylvia makes the last orbble bubble on this planet, and they're off.

 _Feels nice, doesn't it? That you couldn't save everyone. Look down, Wander. Look at them._

Dominator is right, that the image will keep him up at night. Dirt sprays, rock heaves, and screaming people fall through the cracks. And she's suffused with raw pleasure.

For several minutes, Wander's screaming in Sylvia's arms, straining to get back to the planet because maybe they could save just one more person –

The connection between his mind and Dominator's snaps.

Several minutes after that, he slumps limply in Sylvia's arms.

"I know, I know," Sylvia hugs him close, and her own eyes are haunted. "I know, buddy."


	3. Chapter 3

"How did you know?" Sylvia asks, days later.

"Huh?"

"That she was coming?"

"Ohhhuuuhhh…. I just, it was – that's like – LOOK, I THINK THAT PERSON NEEDS OUR HELP!"

Sylvia doesn't ask again, but Wander knows that she wonders.

The nightmares don't stop for weeks. Every night he replays the destruction of the planet and its people; their screaming as they're swallowed into the earth. And every night, he wakes up with terror in his bones, and pleasure twining around his veins. That's probably the worst part - that he remembers the event two-sidedly: half his own experience, half Dominator's. Half terror; half pleasure. Half scrambling around the planet to save people; half gazing down from above with powerful amusement.

Every sleepless night puts Wander one step closer to telling Sylvia what he learned about Dominator, but he stops himself every time, because if he ever meets the sadist again, she'd be able to know right away he had told.

Instead, for weeks, he's hell-bent on a mission of helping as many people as he can. Sylvia supports him every inch of the way, and doesn't complain that they're overworked or not sleeping as much as they should. She understands.

And slowly, slowly, Wander and Sylvia begin to recover. Helping people makes him feel good again, and he sings lots of songs – more songs than usual, which is saying something, but Sylvia does her best to tolerate it.

His frantic, nearly psychotic mission of helping people dwindles into a more normal, relaxed schedule, and he begins to sleep through the night again. If he doesn't focus on it too hard, he can forget that warm, cloying crawl of pleasure through his guttyworks.

As best they can, things return to normal. Hater tries to destroy Wander once and for all, and Wander enjoys being more lighthearted – he humorously draws it out to make it a 'perfect doomsday.' It helps him feel more carefree and more like himself - Wander really had missed Hater and his more friendshippy villainy. Wander also has fun saving the galaxy from Dr. Screwball Jones. Hater goes to the dentist, and Wander and Sylvia are called in to help him out after he's loopy on anesthetic.

Dominator, in all this time, is busy. Every day that Wander avoids her, planets fall, and people die. Mostly, he tries not to dwell on that, but sometimes he can't avoid it.

"We can't do anything right now," Sylvia tells him firmly, because she sees that it gets to him. "Wander, she's unstoppable."

"Somebody's gotta stand up to her," Wander pleads. "Somebody's gotta do something!"

"And that _somebody_ doesn't have to be us."

Sylvia doesn't let him argue. Wander knows that she still analyzes ways to defeat Dominator, but Wander also knows that Sylvia thinks it's hopeless.

Sometimes, he considers sneaking off to talk to Dominator alone. The trouble is, he doesn't know how to approach her, either. Of course he wants to show her how great it can be to be _good_ , and he wants her to have friends and not be all evil. But she's on an entirely differently level than other villains. Some very dark place inside him wonders if she's even _capable_ of being good.

So he continues helping people, where he knows he can be useful, and he never looks for her.

As it turns out, it's Dominator who seeks him out first.

Wander and Sylvia had just departed from the Raija system when they decided to stop at an uninhabited planet rich with foliage. They intended to stay the night to rest, and then move along the following morning to visit those in the Ballzeria system.

They find a cozy patch of grass to settle on, and fall asleep beneath the stars.

It's there that Dominator finds them. Wander wakes at daybreak; in his hazy, sleep-groggy mind, he doesn't at first know why. Something prickles in his head, and he scratches his scalp – it feels like a many-legged insect crawling around, and he just can't scratch the right spot to make the feeling go away.

Soon enough, he's fully roused from sleep, and scratching furiously with a hind paw. Why couldn't this itch just go away-

 _Had to wake you up somehow_. The sensation vanishes, replaced with a much more terrifying one.

He spots her quickly, reclining on a nearby rock, perhaps twenty feet away, but she's far too close for comfort. And Sylvia is right by Wander's side, still snoozing.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to hurt her right now," Dominator drawls, stretching her lithe body. "I just wanted to say hi."

It's extremely jarring, seeing the conqueror relaxing, bathed in the pale pinks of the rising sun. It doesn't seem right. She looks neither dangerous nor sadistic, and it's an alarming contrast to his last two encounters with her. She's not even wearing the horned helmet Wander had last seen her in. Her silky white hair fans out over the rock, and has taken on a faint pink hue in the morning light.

"Well, then, hullo," Wander sidles in front of Sylvia in a stance vaguely protective.

Dominator waves a lazy hand in acknowledgement. Her eyes are closed. "Man, this planet is nice, isn't it? Really quiet." A soft breeze ruffles Wander's fur, bringing with it the sweet smell of spring blossoms.

"A-are y'gonna destroy it?" his voice rockets up an octave, and he glances back at Sylvia nervously.

"Nobody inhabits it," Dominator replies.

"So ya only destroy inhabited planets?"

She shrugs. "Not exclusively. But mostly."

She's… being oddly civil. Wander chews his lip. It took him only two encounters to judge Dominator's nature, and to decide that she might be too evil to reach. That's extremely unusual for him – even given the circumstances of those two encounters – and also wildly unfair.

If she's acting more peaceful now, perhaps it's an indication of her better nature.

Dominator opens her eyes and casts him a disapproving side-glance. "Keep dreaming."

"You're always readin' my mind, huh?" he says abashedly.

"Can't always help it."

"Really?" again, his voice leaps, and he worriedly ensures Sylvia is still asleep.

"Grop, stop fussing about her. She's not going to wake up."

"Wha-"

Dominator rolls her eyes. "Okay, she's going to wake up when I want her to, but not until then. I'm a nice little blanket in her mind making her stay sleepy-sleepy."

That makes Wander uneasy, because he's never had a pleasant experience with Dominator in his head. That said, Sylvia _does_ look peaceful, and Wander trusts that hurting Sylvia wasn't on Dominator's agenda for today.

"And yeah, it's always a low level noise," Dominator continues. "Like the way you'd read facial expressions or something. It's something I do without thinking about it all the time."

"Oh." Wander tries to stifle his thoughts, and then realizes that she would probably be able to tell that he was, and that thinking about stifling them probably made them easier to read and –

"Oh my grop, stop."

Wander falls silent. Distantly, he hears birds calling to each other. Another fragrant breeze gusts by. Was this all Dominator intended on doing? Relaxing on a rock, and enjoying the morning? Why did she come to see Wander, then?

A flit of thought crosses his mind, that maybe she's lonely.

"How do you know how people feel about you?" Dominator asks. "If you don't always 'read' their thoughts?"

The question is so out there, so absurd, coming from her. "Weeeell," Wander answers, "they tell ya how they feel, and they show in their actions! Like Sylvia here! Sure, she sometimes gets a lil fed up with me, but she's always there for me. If I'm ever off the weather, she'd do anything to help me feel better. And she makes me nice food sometimes, and she says real nice things, and she's a lil protective-"

"My mama was like that," Dominator interrupts.

"You have a mama?"

"Used to."

"Oh."

"She always looked out for me. Made meals. Did that whole song and dance, you know?"

"She sounds like a real nice lady."

Dominator tilts her head to the side thoughtfully. "Yeah, she did all the right things. When I was four, I saw my mama's thoughts. That's when I learned she was scared of me, and she wished she hadn't had me after all." She slides off the rock "Do you know what it's like, someone telling you they love you, and you see into their head and learn they don't?"

Wander trembles. Sympathy pours in, and tears well in his eyes. "Dom-"

"Oh, don't."

"But Dom, that's horrible – she shouldn't -" His mouth seals shut, but not of his own volition. It's very much as if someone has sewn needles and thread through his lips to keep them irrevocably shut. It's inhibiting, terrifying, claustrophobic.

Dominator's eyes drift to Sylvia. "My point is, just be careful when people say they love you," she says nastily. A tight-lipped grin appears at her lips. "I'm just trying to be helpful, for my _friend_."

Wander's blood heats – Sylvia wouldn't! She wouldn't ever lie like that!

Dominator tosses her hair out of her eyes. "Anyway, I should get back. The Planet Lamouria is in this system, isn't it? The planet for _lovers_. Seems like a great place to start."

Wander tears angrily at his lips, which still refuse to open. He's mad about her insinuations about Sylvia, and now he's mad and scared about her going off to destroy another planet. It's one thing to know she's doing it, somewhere distant, and another to see her actually make the choice to.

"Can you imagine their screams?" Dominator purrs, and hugs herself. "See, I came here for a break, because I get so into destroying planets, and then before you know it, I'm wrecking two or three a day, and… it just loses that _zing_ , you know?"

"MHhfhf!" Tears spring to his eyes.

"And I watch all those stupid little people scramble around on the surface of the planet, and it's just… _boring._ Like the fun happy circuits are fried. Coming here and talking with you, it gave me time to really _want_ it again." She shrugs. "It gets boring if you speed run through every galaxy. You gotta appreciate what you're doing. Draw it out a bit. Take it slow. But I'm _so_ ready to get back into it."

She's talking about killing billions as casually as you'd talk about a good meal. The thought crushes him. Wander whimpers as his fingers scrabble uselessly over his lips.

"Oh, right-"

Wander's jaw wrenches apart, and immediately words burst forth, "Just 'cause your mama was scared of you and lied, doesn't mean you gotta take it out on everyone else! She must have cared about you to try to do the right thing, and you just didn't see it! She wouldn't have said she loved you if she didn't, somewhere deep down!"

Dominator's brows raise. "Wow, are you trying to make up for all the time you spent unable to talk?"

"An' Sylvia's my best friend, an' she'd never ever _ever_ lie to me about bein' my friend! An' people could actually like you if you were nice to them! Goin' around and hurtin' folks and destroyin' their planets, that doesn't fix anything!"

She whistles. "Boy, you're loud. No wonder it irritates Sylvia."

"It doesn't-" He grits his teeth. Sylvia liked him, and Dominator shouldn't be able to make him doubt that. "I'm trying t'help ya," he insists. "You don't gotta be this way!"

"Oh, you're right. But it's just _so much fun."_ She looks away from the rising sun, and her gaze alights on a huge hulking mass crouching perhaps a hundred yards away, all sharp angles and gleaming metal.

She wants to leave, back to her ship. But if she does, all this conversation would have been for nothing.

"Surely there's somethin' else you wanna do with your life?" Wander strains to say.

"Like what? Can you seriously see me as a – I dunno – as a clerk, or a waitress, or sitting behind a counter-" Dominator sniggers. "Can I please take your order?"

"Well, you're real clever – there's gotta be something!"

"Nope, already got my favorite career path."

"Wait-" he bolts after her as she departs. "What about your ship?"

"What about it?"

"You built it, didn't ya?"

"Sure."

Wander has to trot to keep up to her long strides. "So maybe y'can do something like engineering starships? You're smart, and it looks like y'did a real good job with that one!" Wander deliberately avoids mentioning that the ship is also extremely creepy.

"Mmm, nope."

He winces. "But, that's a pretty incredible talent, Dom. To make something like that all on your own!"

"Sure, I'm pretty impressive. But I only want this ship. Anyway, you've been aboard." Her grin looks feral and not at all normal anymore. "You've seen for yourself that it's not like other ships."

He nods meekly. "It sure was different. A lotta lava, for one thing! And y'can move the walls in it, can't ya?"

"I can break every part of it apart and reassemble it. Like your mind."

There's an awful little lick in his head, of something reaching out just to jostle him. Wander rubs his arm nervously. Clearly, she's proud of her abilities. "That's mighty impressive. It'd make a job in that real easy!"

"It would," she retorts, "except it's the only ship I can do that with. I'm telepathic, not telekinetic, loser."

"Why's it so special?"

Her expression hazards on suspicious. A little worm wriggles in his head, and she's _looking_ for information. She finds it, and her brows raise in surprise.

"I only asked 'cause I was curious!"

"Obviously I know that now." She rolls her eyes. "Still, that's weird. You're _really_ not interested in exploiting any weaknesses."

"Well, I'd rather y'be my friend," Wander says uneasily.

She laughs, and stops, finally turning to give Wander her full attention. "All right, you asked for it. Before I go, I can tell you another secret, 'cause it's fun sharing secrets with _friends._ "

Wander nods, although he wishes it didn't have to be another secret. He really doesn't like keeping secrets.

"The ship is my heart." Her eyes glow with excited, almost childish pride, like a kindergartener showing off a drawing.

Wander's eyes travel to the ship, and then back to Dominator. _What_.

"'Cause I don't have one here!" she taps her chest, and Wander still doesn't comprehend it.

"Uhhh?"

"Ugh, you know what –" _we'll just do it this way_ , her voice is in his head again, slippery and invasive like a parasite. _Explaining is a lot easier when you don't have to use words. You see?_

Suddenly, he _is_ Lord Dominator. His mere existence is like electricity and fire; powerful, confident, destructive. A compelling and warming sense of _home_ , _belonging_ , diffuses through his body, because he's inside his own ship, his own sanctuary, beside a colossal sphere of lava that lazily undulates in a deep rhythm, _thumm-thum thumm-thum thumm-thum._ And his body extends into the framework of the ship – he can move any and all parts of the ship with the same ease he can move his fingers. More than that, he can _feel_ it, the lava veins flowing through the walls, the gentle nearly imperceptible contractions like lungs constricting and expanding.

The sensation shifts. He's not in the bowels of his ship – this isn't a memory, but the present – and his chest is hollow, there's an empty _tug_ in it, because he's separate from the ship, though even now, he feels every bit of it like it's his body, because _it is_ and it almost _hurts_ to be away from it –

Wander's eyes spring open and he staggers back, gasping. Dominator's grinning; there's no sign of that hurt he swore he had glimpsed.

"So, pretty special ship, eh?"

"It's _part_ of you!"

"Wow, we've got ourselves a genius here!" She claps. "Yeah, nerd. It's me."

"H-how did that happen?"

"I made it happen. Now go away; I've got a planet to wreck."

"But, how'd ya –" his throat closes up. His hands fly to his neck and he strains for air, but no matter how he gapes and struggles, he can't draw a breath into his lungs.

"You look like a stupid fish," Dominator tells him, and then he watches through spotty vision as she turns and boards her ship.

The pressure on his throat vanishes; he falls to the grass. By the time he recovers, her ship is little more than a dot in the sky, and dread settles heavily in his heart.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: For those of you who are also reading Dead Flowers/Psychopath Playpen; I promise I'm still working on it. I've been planning it out and writing ahead a lot, and hope to get back into a more frequent update schedule once I begin again.

Mekkai is literally just Trantor – or if you want a more recent reference, Coruscant. Its name comes from a planet of the same name and similar type from Kirby Super Star.

* * *

Wander's worried.

Of course, it's _natural_ to be worried – who wouldn't be worried!? – because while Wander and Sylvia gallivanted around helping Stella and playing tag with Hater, Lord Dominator finally reached her halfway mark. That is to say, half the planets in the Yonder galaxy are now nothing more than floating bits of dead rock. Uninhabited, and uninhabit _able_.

An anxious last-minute panic has settled in Wander's bones and it follows him wherever he travels. The cheery smiles, greetings, and even the songs carry with them a desperate, fearful edge. People are dying. Planets are dying. Everybody knows that, and nobody is doing anything.

More and more often Wander sees travelers from homes that have been ruined, eyes round and afraid and seeking safety. Organizations rise up to provide aid and relief, and to herd survivors to new planets, but these organizations find themselves worked to exhaustion and depletion as food supplies run low, economic progress halts, and refugees are moved to planets that then get destroyed.

Wander never hears about anyone who tries to stop Dominator herself. That means either nobody is trying, or those that do try are not heard from again.

Either way, Wander's guilt deepens; his desire to help strengthens.

"We can't do anything about it!" Sylvia points out when he brings it up for the millionth time. "Even if we got on board her ship again, she's got that entire flarpin' bot army!"

Wander refrains from mentioning that army or no army, her telepathic powers would render useless anyone who attempted to attack her or her ship. Friendship and fruit baskets aren't going to get anywhere with her either, as reluctant as Wander is to admit it.

No, they need a different approach. And he thinks he knows just who to go to for help.

"He's an ol' buddy of mine!" Wander explains, trying to put it gently because Sylvia's been on edge lately.

"Major Threat. Major Threat is a –" Sylvia shakes her head. "You know what, I'm not even surprised."

"He goes by Jeff now! He flies around the galaxy and tries to help as many people as he can! And sometimes he helps other villains see the good – in being good!"

"Oh I get it. You want him to help us against Dominator. Not a bad idea," Sylvia rubs her chin. "Major Threat was the biggest villain in his time. I bet he'd make one heck of a do-gooder, too, especially if it's _you_ who influenced him."

"Uhh, yes!" Wander heartily pretends that was absolutely the only reason he had for seeking out Jeff – not at all that he wants to find Jeff because of the similarity between his powers and Dominators (and maybe he can learn of a weakness or a crack in her armor).

Sylvia, thankfully agrees.

According to his last letter, Jeff currently resides on the planet Mekkai, which boasts of being the only ecumenopolis of the Yonder galaxy. To Wander, that means nothing good. Any natural vegetation of the planet has been decimated or confined to underground facilities. Every inch of the planet is covered in steel and concrete, and littered with walkways, parking lots, factories, and buildings.

It's the opposite sort of place that Wander wants to find himself, but to save the galaxy – and to visit an old friend – he's happy to go.

* * *

It takes time to find him. More time than expected, because it turns out Jeff hasn't made himself very well known on this planet. It's only until they speak to a waitress outside a greasy restaurant that they hear of a character fitting Jeff's description, and she sends Sylvia and Wander in the right direction.

The right direction, it turns out, is a damp alleyway between two towering emotionless buildings. Wander's very first thought upon seeing the ex-villain is that Jeff… Jeff doesn't look right.

Firstly, it's because he's riffling through a trashcan. Maybe he lost something, or someone threw away an object they needed – Wander doesn't want to judge.

But Jeff is also talking to himself. Or – not so much talking as he is mumbling incoherently beneath his breath. His clothes are torn and dirt-smudged in places, and his eyes seem lost, as if seeing things beyond the material plane.

He doesn't look mentally present, not at all, and that makes a cold stone settle heavily in Wander's gut.

"Uhhh…. Everything okay there buddy?" Sylvia tries, before Wander can find words.

Jeff doesn't seem to hear.

"That's him, right?" Sylvia whispers to Wander. "Is he uh… always like this?"

Wander shakes his head. "Jeff?" he tries hopefully.

The change is instant. Jeff's head springs up; his eyes are focused and crystal clear. "Tumbleweed!" he declares, and his voice sounds so normal and familiar that Wander lets out a squeal of delight as his fears vanish. "Aw man, how long has it been!?" Jeff nearly topples the trashcan as he scrambles to greet Wander, a big grin on his face.

"I don't even know!" Wander tries not to keep track because – well, he doesn't keep track.

"Come here-" Jeff tugs Wander into a one armed hug, and he scratches that one spot right under Wander's chin.

"Oooo!" a purring rises in his chest; his foot happily thumps in the air.

That is The Spot!

Sylvia chuckles. "Now I know you guys are old friends. I'm Sylvia, I travel with-"

Jeff waves her introduction aside. "Sylvia! Nah man, you don't need any intro – you rock the _galaxy_ with your good deeds. There's legends and songs about you, man!"

"Well!" Sylvia does her best to be modest, but her comb fluffs a little in pride.

Wander impatiently nuzzles at Jeff's hand, and the ex-villain obliges by continuing to scratch under his chin.

"What are you doing on this ol' planet?" Sylvia asks.

"Oh man, these people are real cuckoo in the head. They wanted more and more and more corporations and factories and all this stuff they didn't need, you know? So I'm down here telling them – they don't gotta _be_ that way, man. They gotta plant some trees, you know? They gotta look after the planet, so it'll look after them."

Sylvia's brows raise. "Whoa, Wander really did get to you."

Jeff holds his hands up in a classic _guilty_ pose.

Relieved of the mind-numbing joy of pets, Wander peers up at Jeff. "So're they listenin' to ya?"

"The citizens here?" a strange fog settles over his eyes – not unlike the distant expression Wander witnessed when they first arrived. "They…" he squints, shakes his head, laughs uncertainly. "Huh, that's wild, man. I can't remember."

"You can't remember?"

Jeff laughs again and looks around the alley like he isn't at all certain where he is or why. "Man, I'm sure it's nothing. Got the memory of a mlarpfish. So what'd I do to get a visit from my best friend!" He starts petting Wander's back, and the purring starts afresh.

Sylvia eyes her rather useless friend and chuckles. "Well, _you're_ Major Threat-"

"Oh, please, Jeff-"

"Err, Jeff – and you're the best equipped to take down Dominator." Sylvia slams her fist into her palm. "You can wipe her across the galaxy with your telekinesis, right?"

"Oh, whoa whoa, no – I only use my powers for good now!"

"Yeah!" Sylvia cheers, "for the good of the galaxy!"

"No, no, man. I'm not gonna hurt anybody with my powers. That's all behind me, man. Now it's all about spreading peace."

"Peace in the form of a Dominator take-down, right?" Sylvia starts to look strained.

Jeff shakes his head. "No can do. But I sure can go talk some sense into her, and show her it's not about bein' evil. In fact, just a couple days ago-" Here Jeff snags on another mental wire, like the circuitry is not quite connecting. His fingers jolt to a halt, and for a fraction of a second, Sylvia swears she glimpses fear in his expression. Swiftly, it's replaced by a placid befuddlement.

"In fact?" Sylvia prompts.

Wander cranes his neck up at Jeff, that cold stone settling again in his stomach.

"I meant to go do that," Jeff finishes, his confusion deepening. "Right when I arrived in this galaxy again."

"And did you?"

"I…. don't know, man." Jeff's wings flutter in an unsettled gesture.

"How much do you not know or remember?" she asks, and it tries to come off sympathetic, but Wander hears the undertone of impatience.

"I remember coming to this galaxy, and I remember heading right to her ship-" sightless, Jeff's eyes widen.

"What is it?" Wander asks, nerves skittering along his skin, because he knows that ship and he knows it's dangerous-

"I'm not so sure he's gonna be much help," Sylvia mutters to Wander, and gestures like she wants to get outa here.

Jeff still doesn't answer. Wander tugs on his cloak, "Jeff, you didn't meet her, did ya? W-wouldn't your powers be enough to protect ya?"

Jeff laughs like he's trying to be normal, "man, my head is all loopy, Tumbleweed – I'm sure it's nothing, just me being all wacked out, man."

"You could have stopped her, though, right?" Wander whines, because don't they have the same power, couldn't Jeff protect himself-?

"Nah man," he says, as casual as anything. "I'm telekinetic, not telepathic; don't got anything to protect this," and he taps at his head.

Wander's stomach drops in a dreadful, swooping motion, and his fingers tingle with icy fear. Jeff knows her powers – whether he consciously realized it or not.

Jeff's brows furrow. "How did I…" he trails off.

Sylvia couldn't learn. "SYLVIA!" Wander shrieks, laughing hysterically, "weren't you telling me how much you wanted to go to that store down the street?"

"Store? What st-"

"WE'LL FIND YA LATER! Jeff and I just need some time to catch up and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait just a second-"

"swap stories like good old friends, it'll be boring, you wanna-"

"Wander, stop!" She grabs his pushing hands and holds them away from her. "What is going on here?"

His expression switches from panicked to pleading, "please, Syl, trust me-"

But his words only add to her concern, "Wander, I don't understand." She turns to Jeff, "what do you mean, about you not being telepathic?"

"I don't know," Jeff says honestly, "but it sure is true – always been able to move things with my mind, man, easiest thing ever. But getting into someone else's mind? No way could I do that."

"Then why mention it?" Sylvia grates.

"'Cause-" Again the truth is there for a second on Jeff's tongue, and this time, it's lost before he has a chance to speak it, like wool has been stuffed into his skull to stop him from seeing his own memories. He's pulled up short, lost, uncertain. "I don't know why, man," he says.

There's no doubt left in Wander's mind. Jeff _had_ met Lord Dominator, and she'd wrung out his brain like a washcloth, rearranging pieces here and there and most importantly, covering up the fact they had ever met.

It doesn't seem as elegantly done as her other efforts – not as clean, not as flawless – it can be considered downright sloppy, with the way he almost revealed her powers. But Wander doesn't care to wonder why. He wants to make sure nothing else was done to Jeff, and he wants to make sure Sylvia stays safe.

Sylvia's eyes narrow. "Wait, Wander…" she turns to him, light in her eyes, "what if… Lord Dominator can control people's minds?"

Flarp.


	5. Chapter 5

Sylvia is very reluctant to let go of the idea she lighted upon.

"It all makes sense," she stresses. "Why else would Jeff not be able to remember anything? All the memory gaps; they're specific to events surrounding Lord Dominator. She must have caught up with him and brainwashed him."

Wander steers Jeff away from the trashcans and tries to point out that really, there can be a whole _slew_ of reasons the ex-villain is so wonky in the head.

"But mind control explains your encounter with her too!" Sylvia insists, "You were on board her ship, but you said you never saw anything. You _must_ have met her – You were brainwashed into forgetting!"

"Auuhh, maaaybe, but-"

Sylvia's eyes fill with compassion. "Oh, buddy - she's clouding your judgment."

"No-" This is bad, very bad-

"I always wondered why you didn't want to help her, the way you help other villains… now it all makes sense. She was stopping you from doing that."

"Uuuuuh-"

"And…" here, too many pieces fall into place. "on the planet that got destroyed, you…" Realization breaks across her face. "You knew she was going to attack."

Wander shrinks away.

She gazes imploringly into his eyes. "Wander, how did you know?"

"I-I uh, gosh Syl, um-" It becomes difficult to meet her horrible suspicion.

"She had to have – sent you a, a telepathic signal or, or _something_ -"

"Syl, I don't know if-"

"But then you would have known she could do this mind thing. You would _have_ to have known."

A whimper.

Doubt, disbelief, "but – but you would have told me, Wander."

"I…." He looks anywhere but at her, because it's much much too hard to meet that heartwrenching expression.

"Wander…"

"I knew," he whispers.

Sylvia's expression crumples, and Wander rushes to rectify himself, "sh-she didn't brainwash me – I didn't tell because she said if I told, she'd kill you! W-well she didn't say that exactly but it sounded an awful lot like that, and I didn't want you to get hurt-"

"Oh, Wander." He thinks she's gonna be mad, at first. He braces himself, only for Sylvia to wrap him up in a tight hug.

"Syl! What's this for!" Wander giggles, a bit nervously and a bit happily.

"You had me all flarpin' worked up! I was thinking she'd scrambled your brain or something, but it turns out you were just worried about me all along." She holds him under his arms and he grins at her.

"So y'aren't mad at me?"

"Not in the slightest, buddy. Well-" Sylvia's expression darkens, "would have been nice to know what we were up against. But I understand why you didn't tell. I'm not mad. Just relieved you're all right."

"Well, I'm not mad at you either!"

"Why would you be mad at me?" She asks wryly.

"Uh… well, gosh, I don't know! But I just want you to know I'm not mad."

Sylvia laughs. "Don't ever change, Wander."

Worry still gnaws at him, because Sylvia had figured it out and she wasn't supposed to, but time keeps ticking on anyway. There's the matter of dealing with Jeff, firstly, and they decide to bring him along with them, mostly because Jeff doesn't seem to be capable of accomplishing much on his own.

"Do you think he'll recover?" Sylvia asks, days later.

"Sure he will!" Wander tries to believe what he says and fails. He's convinced Jeff will only get better if Dominator wills it. It doesn't seem like Dominator wills it. He's not sure she wills anything but destruction.

A few more planets are destroyed, and it begins to feel like they're always running. That any planet they might visit could meet its end in another day or two. That every place they see, they see for both the first and the last time.

Part of Wander wants to go visit Dominator again, to _try_ to convince her to stop. Part of him would be happy to never see her again. Mostly, he feels restless. Trapped while the galaxy gets smaller and smaller.

Wander isn't good about being trapped. And he's not good about being helpless while people die in troves. The need to do _something_ , to help in a more substantial way than just evacuating, arises. There's nothing he can accomplish away from Dominator aside from damage control. If he met her, though….

Wander's scared to. For a lot of reasons, but mostly because Sylvia knows now, and Wander's pretty sure Dominator won't be happy about that.

There's an inkling of a thought: why does Dominator care? If she's so powerful, why bother keeping her powers on the down low? But the thought that she has a weakness is so absurd that it quickly flits away.

Instead, only the fear lingers, and the growing need to _do something._ It's two more weeks of watching the galaxy shrink and its inhabitants suffer before Wander decides there is no choice.

One night, with Sylvia curled up and Jeff staring blankly into a forest, Wander sneaks off the planet and seeks out her ship.

The galaxy, now three-fourths empty, is a very enormous place to go looking for one single spaceship. The conclusion that logically follows is that it would take a lot of time and a lot of guesswork to find Lord Dominator.

It doesn't.

Now that he isn't trying to avoid her, he finds it frighteningly easy to know exactly where to go. As if there's always been a line connecting them, and now little bits of information are filtering through. For example, her ship hovers roughly 10,000 miles from the planet Ziziks. And the planet is destroyed.

He also knows the inhabitants of the planet hadn't had any similar foresight. They had not known, had not evacuated.

When Wander finally approaches, the empty husk of the planet chills him to the core. Dominator makes it very hard to forget that she murders on a massive scale.

Wander slinks up to her ship with new caution in his heart, new awful respect for her destructive capabilities. But still, something must be done. If nobody does anything, she'll destroy the entire galaxy. And then, no doubt, move onto the next.

So he enters. The halls are yawning, dark, warm. He huddles in the very center, so as to keep far away from the walls that pulsed and thrummed with lava, but then he feels very isolated, very out in the open, and it sends shivers up and down his spine. Everything is very dark. Even the lava veins in the walls are unusually muted, their bright vibrancy subdued into a deep cinnabar hue. Wander realizes he's been holding his breath. He sighs out quietly, hardly daring to disturb the strange sacred aura that possesses this place. He creeps deeper into the ship, unsure of where he might find Dominator. Unsure that she wouldn't just appear behind him and grab him.

A shadow shifts against the wall.

"Hrk!" Wander skitters away and throws his arms in front of his face.

Nothing happens.

Nothing moves.

Nothing makes a sound.

One eye peeks open.

It's not a shadow – it's a bot, and it only seemed to move because of the shifting of shadows as Wander walked. It's very obviously _not_ moving, as its legs are curled beneath it, and all the fiery orange lines that decorate the bot's armor are now dull, while its eyes are nearly black.

Is it dead? Wander steps closer, heart thrumming. The thing is enormous, terrifying – but less so now. Not dead, no…. it looks more like it's sleeping –

Then Wander understands. Why the ship is so dark, the colors muted, everything quiet. _Sleeping._

Then, on the heels of that thought, _she sleeps?_

It's silly to believe she doesn't: everyone does. But still, the thought surprises him. And confuses him. Sleeping is such a mortal thing to do, such a vulnerable thing to do. It…. it didn't fit. With her.

He creeps past the bot. Now that he's here, he can't locate Dominator's exact location. All he had been able to do is locate the ship itself, and now he feels very lost. Cavernous empty halls, dozens of bot husks, racks of weapons; all this he passes without finding Dominator.

The sound of rushing lava starts subtle, then grows louder. Wander has a dreadful suspicion he's meandering far away from the most used portions of the ship, and into territory that Dominator herself does not often tread. But _why_ he feels that way is unclear.

The coal-colored walls gently bleed into more molten oranges. Wander stops seeing bots. He begins to worry he's lost – perhaps the ship is an inescapable labyrinth, perhaps he'll be stuck here, always trying to find his way out, finding nothing, seeing nobody, for an eternity.

The thought quickens his step, and he turns left, right, left, left, right, and nothing looks familiar. Then he steps past the entrance to a cylindrical chamber. He pauses. And he takes two steps back, peering into the chamber.

There's a person sitting in the middle of the room.

"Lord Hater!?" Wander yelps.

Hater doesn't answer. Wander's not entirely convinced he _can_. The villain best-buddy good friend is straight-backed, stiff-limbed, round-eyed. He's staring at the wall.

Wander slips into the room. "Hey, Hater! Boy, it's great t'see ya! See, I just couldn't stand for what Dominator's doin' to the galaxy, so while Sylvia was takin' a nap, I decided hey, why not talk to Dom, an' try t'get it all worked out, but I've been runnin' around in circles on this ship and I'm startin' to be worried there's no way out, and that I'd b'stuck here forever, well – gosh, I'm just glad t'see ya!"

Lord Hater doesn't respond.

"Watcha doin' here? I mean, it's not every day ya run into your best friend on a wacky galaxy-destroyin' lady's ship! I kiiinda thought I was the only one who'd swing by to say hi. Were you tryin' to make friends too?" His voice is finding new, frantic octaves.

Hater doesn't seem to be aware Wander even exists in the room.

"Oooo-kay!" Wander laughs. "Well, how about I'll play ya a song! That'll wake ya up, right?" Wander grabs his banjo and launches into a clumsy tune while he dances around Hater's motionless body. "Hey Hater don'tcha know? You're the greatest friend, whenever I see your smile I just gotta grin! Hey Hater don't'cha know, you're the strongest-"

 _What are you doing?_ Groggy.

The strings twang harshly; Wander nearly drops his banjo. "Dominator!"

 _Grop._ Disoriented. _How'd you -?_

She doesn't phrase the question in coherent words, but she doesn't need to. Wander answers, "well, I just walked right on board!"

 _Not supposed to be able_ and _flarpin furry spoon_ and then _ow_ because she slid out of bed and landed on her ankle wrong. Dark, black room but she doesn't need to see to know – just three more hours, couldn't he have waited three hours – too flarpin early – worth destroying? dumb furry face anyway but also – notsobad hurtcurious (kindgood?) (Dom) nobody shortened it before – grop, where's my shirt?

Wander blinks. "Dom-"

 _I'm wearing pajamas you dolt (getting up for your stupid)_

Every second she wakes up further, and every second the background noise is more stifled, until it's utterly silenced. Mental control, Wander realizes. Does that mean she always actively focuses on not projecting her thoughts? That seems…. Exhausting.

 _It's a trait you should learn._ The words are barbed.

"'msorry for wakin' ya up," Wander says, feeling a little funny talking to thin air.

 _Ugh, don't even bother. You and your mopey apologies. If you were actually sorry, you wouldn't have come._

"W-well, I didn't know you were asleep, an' if I had known that, I maybe would'a come another time." Or maybe not, because waiting might mean another planet getting destroyed, and the thought makes him cringe.

Sometimes talking to Dominator doesn't feel like talking to someone who destroys galaxies for fun. Sometimes, he almost forgets. He had forgotten just now, but when he looks into Hater's empty sightless eyes, he remembers. Most of all, he remembers how shiveringly ecstatic it felt to annihilate a planet. His queasiness returns.

 _So, not a social visit? You found the cargo._

" _What_ didja _do_ to Lord Hater?"

 _Don't get your panties in a twist. He's fine. Same as all the other villains here that aren't worth killing._

There are others? Just how many people does she have trapped here? "This ain't right," Wander insists. "You gotta let 'em go, Dom! Nobody deserves t'be locked up like this!" Whatever _this_ was exactly, considering that Hater wasn't actually physically locked up or restrained in any way.

 _Jeez, relax. I'm getting there. Give me like, two minutes to get some clothes on._

Oh. Wander does his best to _not_ focus on the connection between his and Dominator's mind, in case there's any risk of him seeing anything indecent. It just isn't polite to go peeping on other people like that.

 _Nerd._

"I might be a nerd," Wander says, "but I won't let nobody say I'm a peeping tom. Everybody's got boundaries, and they deserve t'have them respected."

She doesn't deign this with a reply. A short few seconds later, he feels her presence, heavy and suffocating in the room, like a blanket wrapped around his brain, cotton stuffed in his ears.

He tucks his wrists close to his chest and sidesteps nervously away from the door. "H-hi Dom."

Her hair is tousled, her eyes tired. She yawns, and brushes the surface of his thoughts.

"You really like this loser, huh?"

Wander's gaze flits back to Hater. Glassy emotionless eyes. Blank stare. Wander forces out, "his name's Hater."

"Ugh, I know. He made sure to scream it at me while asking me out. Added a _lot_ of extra titles though. I mean, Monarch of Mayhem? What? Who needs that pile of flarp?"

"Well, that sure does sound like Hater," Wander has to admit.

"Right? I mean, I've seen my fair slew of irritating admirers, but I've never had someone literally scream at me for a date."

Wander lets out a faint chuckle. "Gosh, Dom, I'm sorry. I keep tryin' to help him out, 'cause I think a girlfriend would do him a load of good, but – well, he usually captures me and then he pretends like he's gonna torture me instead! Makes it awfully hard to get him to listen to some romantic advice."

"But he can't hurt a fly. Classic!"

"Well, naw, it's just a game he and I play! He acts all fierce and scary, an' I'll quiver and shiver."

"What a loser. I knew he was all talk, but it's even dumber to hear the kind of games he played to make himself feel better."

Now that, that's a little harsh, and doesn't sit quite right in Wander's chest. "I dunno if y'should talk about people like that," he tries nervously.

"Oh, better call the police. Oooh wait-" she hits her forehead lightly, "totally forgot that I killed them, yiiikes. What are you gonna do now?"

Wander rubs his arm. "Gee, y'don't gotta be mean about it. L-look, Hater's all right, isn't he? He's gonna be okay?"

Her regal regard passes over Lord Hater. "If I want him to be, I guess."

"S-so, he _can_ get better." It's just a matter of convincing her to want him better. "Does that mean Jeff can be too?" He has to know that all his friends will be safe.

"Jeff? Who is – oh! You found that useless heap of a villain! What was he doing? Hitting his head against the wall?"

Wander sticks out his lip in stubborn silence, but Dominator breaks out laughing, "rifling in trash cans? Oh man! I wrung out his head like a sponge. You know what's really funny? He never even fought. I invited him over and he came all on his own. To _reform_ me. He wanted to talk about peace and love –"

"Dom," Wander squeaks.

"like, can you imagine? He was almost as dopey as you. Easiest thing in the word to scramble a few wires."

"Dom, he's my friend!"

She rolls her eyes, "you're friends with like, everybody. That basically means you're friends with nobody."

"That ain't true! Havin' a lot of friends doesn't make any friendship less meaningful. Love an' friendship don't work that way at all. It ain't like you've got only a certain amount of love. It's more like, every time you get another friend, you find you got more love than you had before."

"That is singlehandedly the most sappy thing I have ever heard-"

"It's a wonderful thing, Dom, if you'd just-" but his mind slips to Sylvia because _bestest bestest buddy_ and that isn't good because – quickly he tries to divert his mind, focus on something else, not on what he's trying to hide –

Her red eyes widen like a child about to get cake. "Oooh, you have a _new_ secret. Let me see-"

"Dom, NO!" By the time he says this, it's already too late, as she finds the memory, fresh and recent, brimming at the forefront of his mind.

Lord Dominator's expression goes blank. "So your pet horse figured it out."

Everything inside Wander collapses. If Dominator hurts Sylvia now, it will be all his fault, for not keeping the secret better- Wander prostrates himself before Dominator, hands clasped together pleadingly, "Dominator, please don't hurt Syl, I didn't mean for her t'find out, and I tried not t'let her learn, and she's not done anythin' wrong, please-"

"I didn't think she was that clever, but I guess seeing Jeff must have made it more obvious…." Her brows furrow and Wander very much doesn't like her expression.

Wander whimpers. "I can't stand t'see anythin' bad happen to her, Dominator, if y'gotta hurt someone, hurt me-"

"Ugh, shut up." However the news might bother Dominator, she swiftly shakes off her surprise. "Honestly, your groveling gives me a headache. I'm not going to hurt Sylvia. You think I actually care that she found out?"

"W-well, I… yeah." Wander gazes at her in confusion. She'd been so intent on keeping her powers a secret from Sylvia, right? Why is she suddenly acting so blasé now?

"Look, I just told you to keep it a secret because it's funny watching you try to lie to your friends."

That didn't really seem like the right answer-

 _It is_ , she insists, and he believes it is.

"Gee Dom, I'm so glad you don't mind!" Wander crows. "Here I had my guttyworks all knotted up thinking you were gonna hurt Sylvia and well – I'm just grateful, that's all."

"Great to hear it," Dominator smiles coolly. "Now that you know I have only good intentions in my heart…. I have a proposition for you. I'll let your little friend Hater here free…. _And_ Jeff…. If you take me to meet Sylvia."

* * *

A/N Oh, Wander. He's already encountered _several_ of Dominator's weaknesses but he hasn't realized it yet.


End file.
